Celestial Year 999 AB
One week before The Summer Sun Celebration
Light Flow's head hurt.
It was a throbbing, banging pain; and it spread through his entire body in quick bursts. It felt like his body was pulsing in time with his heartbeat, as if something was trying to push its way out of him.
Oh no, now he could hear the banging. Applejack had been right, being alone all the time had made him go insane. If he was hearing pain, then surely something ridiculous like smelling colors was next. Why? Dear goddess above, why? Why hadn't he listened to her nagging more?
Wait, was the banging coming from his door?
He groaned in pain, and sat up in his desk chair. His bones creaked loudly, and his jaw popped as he yawned exaggeratively. He had fallen asleep reading again, and even worse: he had been drooling. He was lucky he hadn't been perusing something important, just a light novel that he hadn't even been liking. Some fruity thing about romance that had completely failed to capture his interest at all.
Last time he would take Big Mac's advice for reading material.
He stared forlornly through bleary eyes at the messy page. It might've been his still-blurry vision, but he was pretty sure his drool had rendered the words on it nearly unintelligible. He bit his cheek, and cursed himself for being so inattentive. He might not have cared about the book, but Big Macintosh probably did.
He might not have cared much about the pony himself either, but Applejack did. He would have to find another copy to replace the ruined one.
He briefly screwed his eyes shut as the banging made itself known again. He turned his head to stare at his closed door, and glared at it.
Who would dare to disturb him? Literally, who would dare? Nopony ever came out to his Everfree-adjacent cabin. He didn't even get his mail delivered here, he had to go into town to pick it up.
Not that he ever got anything important. Mostly bills and advertisements for beauty products he only slightly cared about.
Bills.
He sagged over his desk, and let out a long sigh.
He had turned eighteen around two months ago, and that meant he was legally an adult. Which meant that he no longer received aid from the government.
Which meant he would have to get a job.
It was something he had been aware of for a long time, but he had always put off making a plan for the eventuality. Just another thing to think of 'tomorrow'.
But tomorrows kept coming, and he kept putting it off. Now, he was in trouble, at at least he would be when his savings ran out.
He leaned back in his uncomfortable chair and stared up at the ceiling.
He wished staring up at the plain wooden surface would have given him some sort of miraculous epiphany, but no such luck. He was still just a clueless, penniless, jobless unicorn with a bad headache.
And the constant banging wasn't helping...
He grit his teeth, and glared at his door again. "Would you cut it out?! I'm coming, okay?!"
The sound of his own voice may have sent painful tremors though his brain, but it seemed to at least calm down whoever was on the other side of the door. The banging subsided, and he breathed a small sigh of relief.
Now if only he could make his other problems go away by shouting at them...
He placed his hooves on the edge of his overcrowded desk and pushed himself away. His chair scraped agonizingly against the floor, and he took a moment to cradle his head in his hooves.
He breathed deeply and erratically as he waited for his vision to un-fuzz. Why did everything hurt so much? His headaches were never usually this bad, though they had been growing in frequency lately.
Something he should probably see a doctor about. Maybe tomorrow.
For now, he would just bear the pain until he could splash some water in his face. But that could wait until after he had answered his rude guest.
He rolled out of the chair and onto his hooves, biting his lip as his head filled with fire.
"Yeah, yeah. I get it, pain. Something's wrong. I got the message, so go away..." He whispered to himself as his head pounded. Unfortunately, his head didn't quite get the memo, and continued to implode.
He grumbled obscenities under his breath as he stumbled blindly to the door. Everything was blurring together and he was having a difficult time telling exactly how far away his destination was. His sleep-induced haze and pain-induced daze were an incredibly disorienting combo, which resulted in him walking directly into the wall just adjacent to the door.
The pain flared up in response to the unintended knock, and he repeatedly stomped his hoof onto the ground as he made several strangled noises. He sucked in hot breaths through his teeth as he stared at the floor for a moment, before he shook his head violently. The physical pain seemed to have cleared up his vision a bit, so at least he had the pleasure of staring at a mostly-clear brown floor.
He craned his head up, staring with hooded eyes at the wall that was decidedly not a door in thinly-veiled rage. He took two steps to the left, and reached a hoof up to the handle that was now in front of him. Magic would probably knock him unconscious at the moment, so he would have to open the door the non-unicorn way.
He was going to have some very choice words for his unknowing tormentor. It was barely even registering that it wasn't really their fault, he just knew that somepony had to pay.
He swung the door open, fully prepared to unleash the depths of his raging fury on whoever was unfortunate enough to be standing on the other side.
But there was no one there.
His incredulous gaze flicked from side to side, and he even took a step out onto the grass to see the skies above his cabin, in case it had been Rainbow Dash with another of her ridiculous pranks. But wherever he looked, there was absolutely nopony in sight.
He did notice the sun relatively low in the sky, which probably ruled out a prank. The problematic pegasus never got out of bed this early. On that matter, he had no idea why such a talented pegasus like Rainbow Dash would blatantly waste her skills by sleeping until noon and underachieving at her job.
It was baffling, really. It hadn't taken her very long to be appointed captain of the local weather team, even with her lackluster work ethic; so her superiors clearly recognized her talent the same way he had, though they probably still didn't fully grasp the tragedy of the situation. She absolutely deserved the promotion, but even still..
It was just so beneath her. It was like appointing the strongest pony in the world as a mover. They could still do the job effectively, but they could also be so much more.
No matter how many times he had brought it up to her, she adamantly refused to listen. She didn't care about the historical significance of her achievements, and there wasn't much more interest in their combat usage either. She could have been a celebrated general or something, but she just didn't care.
She could do so many great things, even if she didn't care about warfare; but she was wasting all of her potential. Heck, even her low-bar dream of performance would be better than what she was doing now, but she was just sitting around doing nothing in this no-name town. It just made him so angry.
He took in deep breaths as he stared at the empty dawn sky. The collage of fluffy pink, cool blue, and rising orange was helping clear his mind; and he took the opportunity to reevaluate his thoughts. Why on Equus was he standing outside his cabin with a splitting headache thinking about Rainbow Dash of all ponies?
This wasn't the first time his thoughts had become focused on the prismatic pony, and it probably wouldn't be the last. He didn't know why he had such a tendency to get so stressed out about other ponies' lives, but he just did.
One of his worst traits, by far.
He shook his head and turned around. He took a step into his cabin, and moved to close the door behind him, intent on putting the causeless banging out of his head. But as he reached for the handle, something strange caught his eye. Something that hadn't been there a second ago.
Something that made his eyes widen, and his heart accelerate to dangerous speeds.
There was a box sitting in front of his open door.
A plain, medium size, cardboard box.
With his name on it.
His hoof fell away from the handle as he openly gaped at the anomalous box. The pain suffusing his body was immediately pushed aside as his head went into overdrive in an attempt to comprehend this newest development.
A box.
A box that was exactly the same size as the one hidden in his basement. The same size, the same material, he could even spot the same messy scrawl of his name on the top.
For all intents and purposes, It looked to be the exact same box.
His eyes traced over every detail he could find. He desperately searched for any imperfection, any tell at all that would reveal this as some sort of prank. Some sort of trap or trick or anything that would say this wasn't really happening.
Anything at all. Anything that would lower his hopes.
There wasn't a top. There wasn't anything on the box at all besides his name. It was made of cardboard. That was it.
Exactly like the first one.
He felt his throat close up as the metaphorical floodgates opened. So many thoughts and feelings and urges ran through his mind, and he almost felt overwhelmed at the enormity of the moment.
He felt his jaw quiver slightly, and he quickly tried to suppress the growing wellspring of emotion that was bubbling in his chest. If anypony miraculously walked by and saw him crying at the sight of a package, they would probably call the police on him.
But it was so hard to not be emotional! He had waited so long for this. So many hours spent rereading the same two books over and over again. So many repeated sentences, gone over again and again ad nauseam until he could recall large swathes of the text by memory.
So many nights spent wishing for more.
He tentatively brought a hoof forward, before he was struck by a very sudden fear. His blood chilled and his hoof froze in place. He stayed like that for a moment, completely stationary, as terrifying thoughts swirled through his head.
What if the box wasn't really there? What if it went away when he moved? What if he was just hallucinating again? This wasn't the first time he had seen things that weren't there, and he was certain he would have many more moments like that in his life.
What if this was another of them?
He slowly returned his hoof to his side, and continued staring wide-eyed at the box. If it was going to disappear, then he wanted to take in the moment as much as he could.
He wanted to remember everything possible about the box. He wanted to be able to paint the damn thing from memory. He had never painted before, and he had absolutely no interest in the activity at all, but it was more about the hyperbole than the actual meaning.
Unfortunately, there wasn't very much to take in about such a plain box. He could watch the shadows dissipate as the sun moved across the sky, and connect the various shapes they made as they blended into the messy scrawl of his name.
He could note the subtle bending of the relatively long grass due to the way the box was placed, or he could try to calculate the exact length from the box to his front door based on the approximate size and placement of the box. Neither of those things were very interesting though.
None of it was very interesting. As wonderful as the sight was, there wasn't a whole lot to take in about such an inconspicuous box.
He let a deep breath out through his nose as his expression fell. Was he really thinking about doing random math just to prolong the inevitable? He knew he had problems with facing his problems, but this was just getting ridiculous.
He knew the box wasn't really there. Why was he so intent on playing out ridiculous fantasies about silly things that were bound to never happen? He had made his peace on the matter long ago, and he was resigned to the knowledge that there would never be a second box.
He would never know where the first one came from, and he would never learn anything real about Necromancy. It was time to stop pretending.
His shoulders sagged as his eyes grew dull. It was time to dispel his mania, and get back to the real world.
He swung his hoof forward, and haphazardly brought it down in front of him; sure in his belief that the box would instantly disappear, like stepping in a puddle and watching the reflection distort.
He sighed heavily as the box stubbornly stayed where it was. He was going to have to really consider that doctor's appointment. If his hallucinations were getting this bad, it was clear he needed help.
He slowly trudged towards the illusory box. If his head wasn't going to settle for making things simple, he would just have to touch the space where the box appeared to be. If he could still see it even when his hoof was buried halfway into it, he would have to bump that doctor's visit up a couple leagues of priority.
Honestly, it wasn't a surprise that he was going insane. There was a definite history there, especially considering the increasing variety of mental breakdowns he had suffered in the last year or so.
It wasn't anything too concerning though. Just seeing things where they weren't, hearing voices when he was alone, having nightmares of dark demons in silver armor, et cetera. It was all essentially harmless stuff. Nothing he had been explicitly bothered about before, but maybe it was time to start worrying.
He didn't really know any psychiatrists to go to though, maybe Applejack could recommend a-
His hoof bumped against something.
His weary sigh caught in his throat, and he could swear his heart stopped. He stared open-mouthed at the thing that had impeded his progress, and he blinked rapidly in an attempt to clear his eyes of the abnormality in his view. His head rocked imperceptibly from side to side automatically, and vague mutters of disbelief came to his lips unbidden.
His hoof was touching the box. The box that shouldn't-couldn't have been real.
His hoof was touching it.
His mouth closed, and his tongue drifted out between his teeth. He bit down as hard as he dared, and his head shook slightly from the pressure.
It was still there.
He watched in abject horror as his hoof came up to rest against the top of the box, and his breath hitched as the object proved solid. He pushed down slightly, and felt a small amount of give to the material.
It was real.
A wordless cry made its way out of his mouth as his legs buckled beneath him. He collapsed over the box, feeling the somewhat course surface come into wonderful contact with his face.
He rubbed the side of his face against the cardboard, and his hooves came around to connect behind the box. He hugged the unfeeling container to himself tightly, as his eyes grew hot and his throat closed up.
He wasn't insane. He might've been hunched over crying while hugging a box, but he wasn't insane! It was really there!
His shoulders shook as he sobbed silently. He didn't care who saw him at this point, they could all go jump in a hole with their definitions of normality. Right now, this box was his entire world, and he never wanted to let go of it.
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As Light Flow had a very emotional moment with a box, somepony else was having a strange moment of their own.
About thirty yards from the front of Light's home, there stood a tree. This tree looked to all the world like it was completely normal. Any creature from any place in the world could walk right up to it and comment on it being the most plain-looking and least suspicious tree they had ever seen.
And they would be completely right.
What was less normal was the cream-colored mare perched on a high branch with a pair of binoculars.
Bon-Bon lowered her government-issued binoculars in confusion, before raising them back to her face. She wasn't really sure what she was looking at, but she had somewhat of an inkling.
Sort of. What was he doing?
She had always been pretty lukewarm on this assignment for many reasons. She had a good thing going in Canterlot, and moving to a different place for a long-term job was something she was less than happy about. And it had only gotten worse when Her Highness had told her where she was being sent.
Coming back to her hometown after being away for eight years wasn't something she had been especially looking forward to, and she had argued for a different posting many times. But Her Highness had been very firm, and Bon-Bon couldn't really refuse a direct order.
In the end, she had reluctantly packed up and moved to Ponyville, and she had never been so happy in her entire life.
Though, spending her time stalking a weirdo kid was pretty exhausting, no matter how dangerous he may have been.
Light had done a lot of strange things in her long tenure as his 'guardian', but this was one of the strangest. She didn't know what was in the box she had been told to deliver, and she got the vague feeling that Her Highness didn't really know either. The only thing she knew was that it was extremely important that he received it at this very moment.
She grimaced as she watched through her binoculars. Was kissing the thing really necessary?
Lyra was sure to get a kick out of this.